Prior to The Bahamas' national election in May, I wrote the first of a two-part article captioned "Mark the Manner of Your Bearing". Today, I share with you the second part to that article, now that the elections are behind us.
Premised on the fact that citizens and residents can make a difference in strengthening democracy by holding leaders and themselves accountable, as opposed to feeling that they can do so only but once every five years, I seek to share the following points for consideration.

Holding ourselves accountable
Our deportment as citizens and residents of these wonderful islands is always under scrutiny. Gone are the days when we could say or do something and it would take the rest of the world a long time to hear or see. No longer is this the case with social media, which can over-inflate as well as misstate. Therefore, a call to a high standard, national pride and a commitment to best practices must so mark a people seeking to build a commendable nation that the late Timothy Gibson, composer of the national anthem, envisaged.
The notion of excusing ourselves because of our small size in comparison to other nations is unacceptable. Notwithstanding our size, one need only consider our location, which has us perched between Cuba and one of the greatest nations on earth, the United States of America. In many ways our location, style of living and economy makes us, in some respects, the envy of the region. However, the late Carlton Francis warned years ago, "We are a small nation that can be easily permeated by any pernicious influence." Furthermore, he observed, "I am saying that where we are aspiring to the disciplines of hard work and industry we are not yet off the ground." From 1973 to the present we must ask ourselves: "Are we living up to or fulfilling what was anticipated by our forefathers?" A country is only as strong as its people and values. Likewise, it is my opinion that a government is only great to the extent that it is prepared to govern in accordance with such values and standards referenced above, and to the level people hold their leaders accountable.

Embrace the best
The call to excel through love and unity denotes genuine care for one another as well as a commitment to work together. Of course, this is easier said than done given the makeup of our country, which is comprised of whites and blacks, Bahamians, Haitians, Jamaicans, Chinese, and other nationals who now call The Bahamas home. How do we live together in love and unity, harnessing the collective gifts, talents, and abilities that make for a great nation? While I am in no way advocating a violation of our immigration laws, I am calling for a full acceptance of those who hold citizenship and legal status to reside here. On the other hand, I hope that the government can find a solution to address the many undocumented residents who were born in our country. It would seem disingenuous that when some of these children excel in academics and sports the nation is quick to claim them as its own. However, an approach to harnessing the collective talents and abilities of our people and residents will truly make us a great little nation on this earth, aspiring to best practices in all areas. As already noted, our size need not cause us to think small. To the contrary, we must be proud in a positive sense, believing in our ability, believing in one another and ever seeking to improve. Our government must assure that room is created for Bahamians who desire to make The Bahamas great.

God is watching
Timothy Gibson was a man of God given to godly principles, for he wrote, "Til the road you've trod lead unto your God". According to the fifth book of the Bible, Deuteronomy 4.7-9, a nation is great, "who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon Him for." Additionally, it explains that a nation is great when it has "statutes and judgments so righteous". Thirdly, a nation is great when it remembers God and passes on His teachings to successive generations, as noted by Moses when he penned, "Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons."
Based on these three principles in the passage, The Bahamas must take seriously the importance of having God present. A desire for some lewd practices, as manifested in aspects of Junkanoo carnival, does not bode well for godliness. Also, a great nation is one that does not only possess laws and statutes, but is not afraid to execute them. When slackness is tolerated it is embraced and eventually becomes a part of us. However, when a nation remembers God, it demonstrates a spirit of gratitude as opposed to entitlement; an appreciation for opportunities as opposed to handouts, and a true desire to be the best -- ever grateful.
Happy Independence Day as we mark the manner of our bearing!

Although bunions are much more common in adults, podiatrists regularly treat young children and teenagers who have bunions. A bunion deformity in a child is known as a juvenile bunion. Bunions in children are not normal and should be treated as early as possible. The treatment goal is to prevent the bunions from getting larger and to relieve any pain.
Bunions result in the big toe drifting towards the second toe, with a bony bump forming at the base of the big toe joint. Over time this joint often becomes arthritic and painful, and finding shoes to fit is difficult. Although bunions tend to run in families, it is the foot type that is passed down -- not the bunion. For example, parents with flat feet can pass their problematic foot type on to their children, who in turn are more likely to develop bunions. The abnormal foot functioning caused by this foot type can lead to bone and joint deformities such as bunions, and hammertoes.

Why children get bunions
Shoes rarely play a role in causing bunions in children. Instead, juvenile bunions are usually related to family inheritance. Often, they are secondary to loose, floppy joints and excessive foot pronation (inward rotation). When the child pronates excessively, it places excessive pressure on the big toe joint, preventing normal function. Less often, juvenile bunions can be caused from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis or neuromuscular disorders (eg. cerebral palsy) or low muscle tone (eg. Down Syndrome). Juvenile bunions are considered more serious than adult bunions, as there are more years available for the bunion to get worse and cause problems.

Juvenile bunion symptoms
In the early stages, juvenile bunions are not obvious and may be noticed when the child presents to the podiatrist because the parent is concerned about flat feet. As the bunion deformity progresses, the child might complain of a bony bump at the base of the big toe joint; swelling or sometimes redness at the base of the big toe; difficulties finding shoes to fit; pain when walking or playing sports; "flat feet" or pronated foot type; and joint hypermobility (loose ligaments, floppy joints).
Diagnosis
The podiatrist will take a comprehensive medical history and perform a physical examination, including looking at the way the child walks. They will check for foot posture, joint flexibility (or range of motion), and look for abnormal shoe wear patterns. A plain x-ray may be ordered to look more closely at the bones and shape of the joints in the foot.
Treatment
Identifying juvenile bunions early is important. If juvenile bunions are left untreated they tend to get larger and more painful, making it more likely that surgical intervention will be required.
Treatment options vary according to the severity and size of the bunion. The primary goal of most early treatment options is to relieve pressure on the bunion and slow down or stop the progression of the joint deformity.
Foot orthotics: Foot orthotics are prescribed by your podiatrist when the child's foot posture is contributing to the development of the bunion deformity. Foot orthotics help to reduce the weight-bearing pressure on the big toe joint and support the foot in a corrected position. Foot orthotics can be very helpful in reducing discomfort and slowing the progression of the bunion deformity.
Footwear: It is important that the child avoids shoes with a narrow or tapered mouth (toe box). Shoes must have plenty of growing room so there is no pressure on the toes. The shoes should not have a high heel, as this will increase the pressure on the big toe joint.
Bunion night splints: A night splint helps to realign the bunion joint and stretch out the soft tissues surrounding the joint by applying a small amount of corrective force overnight. The bunion splint is easy to attach to the foot and is used while sleeping, and has proven to be very effective in many cases of juvenile bunions.
Exercises: The podiatrist will provide advice on exercises to improve the mobility of the joint and to strengthen the small foot muscles that support your foot.
Surgery: When early treatment fails or the bunion progresses, causing pain and deformity, surgery may become necessary to relieve pressure and repair the damaged joint. Surgical correction of a bunion in a child is usually not recommended until growth of the bones is completed -- until after at least 12-14 years old.
If you have a family history of bunions or you are concerned that your child might develop a bunion or if you see a bunion developing, contact a podiatrist today for an appointment. Early identification and treatment of juvenile bunions can make a big difference to your child's future foot health.

o For more information email foothealth242@gmail.com or visit www.apma.org. To see a podiatrist visit Bahamas Foot Centre on Rosetta Street, telephone 325-2996, or Bahamas Surgical Associates Centre, Albury Lane, telephone 394-5820, or Lucayan Medical Centre on East Sunrise Highway, Freeport, Grand Bahama, telephone 373-7400.

"While one may encounter many defeats, one must not be defeated." - Maya Angelou

The 2017 general election is over and the new Free National Movement (FNM) government has been installed. It has been 20 years since a political party has won two successive terms in office. The Bahamian people spoke loudly and clearly. They had, had enough of Perry Christie's Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) and wanted to see the backs of his government.
Never in the history of the country have the people spoken so summarily, decisively and forcefully. In May's election, the electorate returned only three PLP incumbents and elected a single new-comer, Chester Cooper, as compared to the 35 FNM candidates who were elected, many for the first time.
Never in the history of the country have the people not returned a sitting prime minister to office. And never have the PLP's strongest, and heretofore presumably "safe" seats, been so resolutely rejected and handed over to the former opposition.
Therefore, this week, we would like to Consider this...considering the near wipe-out of the PLP, what are some of the teachable moments and lessons that the PLP can garner from the 2017 general election?

The election results
The 2017 election results were instructive. According to the parliamentary commissioner's website, of the 181,543 registered voters, 160,409 or 88.3% went to the polls. Therefore, 11.7% of registered voters did not vote.
The FNM won 57% of the popular vote, garnering 91,137 votes compared to 37% or 59,164 votes that were cast for the PLP. The difference between the two major parties was 31,973 votes. Of the 175 candidates who contested the 2017 election, 97 lost their deposits.
The Democratic National Alliance (DNA) obtained only 7,537 votes or 4.7% of the votes cast, a notable decrease from the 8% that it obtained in the 2012 election. It was clear from the DNA's deteriorating performance that Bahamians did not want to take a chance of splitting their vote, which would have favored the PLP.
Equally instructive were the number of seats that had impressive majorities. There were only two seats in which the successful candidates won by less than 100 votes. There were also fifteen seats won by more than 1,000 votes. One of the largest margins of victory went to the new Prime Minister, Dr. Hubert Minnis, who won his seat by more than 3,094 votes over his PLP opponent, compared to the outgoing Prime Minister, Mr. Perry Christie, who was vanquished by his FNM victor, Mr. Chipman Reece, by the smallest margin of votes: 4.

The Greenberg Report of 2007
After its defeat in 2007, the PLP commissioned Greenberg Quinton Rossner, a polling and research firm, to assess its reasons for losing. In the report, Greenberg highlighted several "fundamental factors" that contributed to the PLP's loss. In 2017, there were many similarities to Greenberg's 2007 report.
Those "fundamental factors" included (1) the PLP's failure to expand its base, (2) the party's inability to "take concrete actions that conveyed its seriousness about purging corruption from the party and the state", and (3) Mr. Christie's leadership style "which voters equate with weakness".
Greenberg noted, "There is a perception among voters that the PLP has become more focused on doing things that benefit its own politicians than for people." Sounds chillingly close to the characterization of Christie's recent administration.
Greenberg also suggested that, since the PLP lost the 2007 election, instead of only criticizing the government in its role in opposition in the five years ahead, it needed "to promote a progressive social agenda".
The PLP made the catastrophically calamitous mistake of not taking that 2007 report seriously. Some senior former ministers and party elders did not even want to debate the report internally. How short-sighted! Had an honest exercise and analysis been performed regarding the party's failure in 2007, perhaps some of the mistakes could have been avoided during the PLP's second, non-consecutive term that came to a crashing conclusion on May 10, 2017.
However, the party leadership adopted the proverbial ostrich posture of "burying its head in the sand", both in 2007 and for much of its recent disastrous term in office. Despite the many cautions and warnings proffered by long-standing, senior, dedicated party supporters, Mr. Christie and many of his ministers repeatedly ignored the calls for reform.
One of the most preposterously perplexing pronouncements by a senior minister who lost his seat on May 10, was that the PLP should not spend too much time analyzing what went wrong. That monumental mistake was made in 2007 and should not be repeated.

Lessons that should be learned
There are many important lessons that the PLP should learn from this recent contest. Those lessons include the urgent need within the party for brutal honesty in recognizing and owning the mistakes and missteps of its administration. Those included a deep-seated shroud of secrecy that enveloped some of its policies and practices, demonstrating complete disregard for transparency and accountability.
Secondly, there was a pervasive perception by the populace that some members of the PLP government were steeped in conflicts of interest and corruption. Only one single Minister, Mr. Damian Gomez, was brave enough to call out such practices. Perhaps that was one of the reasons he was deprived of a nomination in the last election. The PLP has habitually ostracized those who sound the warning of impending doom.
No one has ever successfully accused the prime minister of corruption in his forty-plus years in office. However, either he knew what his corrupt, conflicted or compromised ministers were doing all around him and did nothing, which plays into the narrative of being a weak leader, or he was ignorant about what was taking place, a proposition that few Bahamians would find credible. Errors and sins of omission often trump those that are committed.
Third, many PLP members of Parliament (MPs) had become so disconnected from the people who elected them, that one veteran PLP candidate admitted on election day that he no longer recognized many of the voters whose support he was seeking.
Fourth, MPs failed to recognize that their loyalty was owed to the country first, then the party and then the leader. Too many MPs acknowledged that Mr. Christie had become a drag on the PLP, but refused to honestly confront this reality. The obsequious obeisance that political minions, hangers-on and sycophants paid to the leader, along with the blind faith that they placed in him, greatly contributed to the party's performance at the polls. This behavior must never be repeated if the party ever hopes to regain the trust of the Bahamian people.
Fifth, the wanton hypocrisy demonstrated by some lawmakers who themselves ignored and, in some instances, violated the law by, for example, ignoring the legal requirement for filing their public disclosures, irked many Bahamians.
Sixth, the last-minute efforts to win votes by awarding enormous contracts, at great expense to the public purse, in the run-up to the election galled many voters. It was clear that a last-ditch effort to buy votes was being attempted.
Seventh, the PLP did nothing to instill or inspire confidence in a government that blatantly ignored the will of the people, such as in the case of the gaming referendum.
Above all, the government's failure to adequately engage the public on so many issues, such as the Freedom of Information Act, the Baha Mar debacle, the National Intelligence Agency and others, depreciated its political currency with the electorate.
When a thorough post-mortem is conducted, if the PLP has the courage to perform an autopsy on its term in office, there will undoubtedly be other examples of how poorly the PLP governed in the last five years.

Seeking forgiveness
Until and unless the PLP, squanderers of the people's trust in so many ways, admits to its shortcomings and asks the public's forgiveness for its many mistakes and missteps, the party's road to recovery will be rugged, long, and, perhaps, never-ending.

Rebuilding, redefining,
rebounding, rebranding and re-engineering
In order to rebound from its defeat and rebuild the trust that it squandered during its term in office, the PLP must rebrand itself as a popular political party. It must redefine its vision, re-engineer its organization and must once again become relevant to the electorate.
In order to clearly demonstrate that it has heard the voice of the people, the PLP should immediately begin by accepting the resignation of its national chairman who equally bears responsibility for the party's rejection. Furthermore, what is urgently required is a more benign, less belligerent and bellicose national spokesman, whose primary responsibility would be to heal the wounds that were, and continue to be, inflicted on the party and to rebuild the party's organization. The entire party leadership must be reconstituted to address the new demands of what needs to be a modern, dynamic, restructured 21st century political organization.
Above all, the PLP must reacquaint itself with its core values from which it has so diametrically deviated. It must refine its vision, recasting its message so it becomes relevant to the needs of the people who the party hopes to represent.

Conclusion
The PLP has a rich and commendable history and we believe that its best days lie ahead. If it truly learns from its mistakes and rediscovers its moral compass, the PLP could present itself again as the best hope for scores of those Bahamians who, for so many decades, reposed their trust and confidence in the PLP and welcome them home again.

o Philip C. Galanis is the managing partner of HLB Galanis and Co., Chartered Accountants, Forensic & Litigation Support Services. He served 15 years in Parliament. Please send your comments to pgalanis@gmail.com.

"So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."
- Matthew 10:5a, 26-31

Often we doubt God and let the common situations of life burden us and cause us to worry about things that are really not worth worrying about. Our Lord Jesus Christ left us words of comfort, "... I will be with you always, even to the very end of the age."
(Matt. 28:20)
Like many people, I have had my mountain of difficulties. There were times when I felt that I would not endure, however, the Lord bore my burden and brought me through.
In the above text Jesus sent His disciples out to proclaim the Gospel. In sending them, He warned them that, in times to come, they would encounter great trials and tribulations.
They would be arrested, tried and even jailed. Often they would have to run and hide from the authorities. Some would even be sentenced to death and executed.
Such things happened to many of the disciples after Jesus went away from them. Life became quite difficult. Notwithstanding the hardship, trials and tribulations with which they were confronted, they continued to faithfully proclaim the gospel.
The disciples endured because they had a power much greater than those who sought to stop them. The Spirit of God was with them. He guided them in their ministry and provided them with the proper words to speak when they were brought before hostile authorities.
Jesus assured them of His protection and He gives us the same assurance today. If we are to fear, we should fear God. He is more powerful than all the earthly powers combined.
Those who might threaten us and even take our lives here on earth have limited power. In the words of Martin Luther's hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is our God."
"Were they to take our house, goods, honor, child, or spouse, though life be wrenched away, they cannot win the day. The kingdom's ours forever." Yes, God is the mighty one who protects us.
Because God is all-powerful we should fear Him, not mankind. It is true that humans can cause great calamities in our lives. They can make living almost unbearable. Nonetheless, we should fear God. "Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell."
We who are in Christ Jesus are not to be afraid of the powers of the earth. They can, and may, threaten us and even take our life. However, God can be the most awful ultimate enemy. Humans can only kill the body. Are we not destined for death?
However, after death, in the judgment, we will have to face God. He has the power to kill and destroy the body and soul even after life has gone from the body.
Yes, we can escape life's woes through death, but we cannot escape God. He has power over both life and death. Those who might threaten us are not as powerful as we may think. They too will have to face God in the judgment.
Therefore, live for God. Be courageous and speak His Word to the people around you. Help them to see the God of Calvary who gave His life so that we might have life.
Even though we live in a world that has become indifferent to the Word of God, we have the assurance that God is always with us. The Spirit of God will guide us as He guided the disciples. He is your greatest ally and protector. Amen.

o Rev. Samuel M. Boodle, pastor at The Lutheran Church of Nassau, can be reached at P.O. Box N 4794, Nassau, Bahamas or telephone 323-4107; E-mail: lutheranchurch@coralwave.com.