A short while ago it was said that I was starting and spreading rumours about Hubert Ingraham being a part of a coup to challenge Dr. Hubert Minnis for leadership.

For Hubert Ingraham to believe that, he must be living in a fool's world, and suffering from delusions of grandeur to think that I would have the time or interest in starting any rumours about him. I was merely commenting on a rumour about a possible vote of no confidence in Dr. Minnis and him being replaced as Prime Minister.

It all started when someone phoned me to say that there was soon to be a vote of no confidence in the present Prime Minister and he was to be replaced by someone else.

I said at the time I thought it was stupid and impossible. I further said that the present government should stop the backbiting, act like grownups and start governing, and watching out for this country rather than themselves.

I was later asked to appear on the Steve McKinney show when a possible vote of no confidence in Dr. Minnis was discussed. I was asked why I thought a vote of no confidence would not work. I explained that if a vote were taken, Dr. Minnis would have several days to either step down or call another election. It is obvious that the present members would not want an election.

Then we turn to the Bahamas Constitution, which says that the LEADER of the Party THAT has the majority of seats in the House becomes the Prime Minister.

So Dr. Minnis would have to be replaced as Leader of the Party at a convention.

So in order to replace him at a convention a potential leader would have to be chosen from the Members of the House. Which Member of the present House can beat Dr. Minnis at a convention? I would say none.

So that means that a person outside the House who could possibly beat him at a convention would have to be found. It was suggested on several occasions to both Mr. McKinney and myself that Hubert Ingraham was the man. Although I did not believe that Ingraham could win, I agreed he would have a better chance than anyone else at being successful.

So that presents another problem. Hubert Ingraham is not a member of the House. The only way to solve that problem would be for somebody to resign.

And now that brings up another question. Which seat would guarantee the FNM a win in a bye-election? The answer to that is obvious, St. Anne's. That means Brent Symonette would have to resign.

Now having won a bye-election, a convention could be forced and if Dr. Minnis loses then the new leader of the FNM would be Prime Minister.

Frankly, I think the whole thing is foolhardy and stupid. It is time that the Members of the House ... all of them ... remember that the people put them there to serve the country, not themselves.

My advice to all of them is to smarten up and fly right, the Bahamian people are not as foolish as some may think.

Dear Editor,
We have known for more than a decade that our educational system and physical plants are in a total and abject mess. Under successive administrations they have gone from bad to worse, if that were possible.
All of the so-called modern ministers of education have lamented the state of affairs, wrung their hands and shed alligator-sized fake tears. Why do I state this without fear of contradiction?
Apart from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health is allocated the biggest chunk of the annual budget. In neither case, I submit, are we receiving value for money. Successive ministers in education, with the exception of the late Carlton E. Francis and now, Jeffrey Lloyd (FNM-South Beach), were not trained educators and may have not been as motivated as they could have been if they were. In the days of Francis, we were still, relatively speaking, "a sleepy nation" with a much smaller student population and less of the societal and cultural stress which we are witnessing, live and in full color, today.
It is a serious indictment on former Minister of Education Jerome Fitzgerald, who was humiliated like so many of his colleagues during the May general election, that tens of millions of dollars were expended on a Seventh-day Adventist facility up on Wulff Road without, apparently, transparency.
Education of the masses has always been seen, in my view, as a laboratory where the powers that be, aided and abetted by educational gurus and snake oil salesmen (we all know who they are), experiment with grades A straight down to D, with no appreciable improvement, ever. In the mean time, hundreds of dollars are literally placed in the hands of men and women who never could make a decent living in the private sector. The dumbing down of our educational system and by extension our trusting, if rude children, are going to be fatal from a national, economic and personal development point.
Yes, some say that Jeff Lloyd is ideal to lead the Ministry of Education. He is a good man, no doubt, but, is he up to the task or is it all just hype? I came to know Jeff a decade or so ago when he requested my assistance with his then talk radio show "Real Talk Live" hosted on More 94.9 FM. He wanted to study law at The Eugene Dupuch Law School. Of course, I agreed. He's now been admitted to the Bar, elected to the House of Assembly and appointed to Cabinet. Has he ever called me to simply say thanks for my assistance, encouragement and input? Not yet, and I will not hold my breath waiting for such a call or simple courtesy. No love loss and none expected.
The FNM campaigned on one slogan: "It's the people them time." This is an empty slogan and was designed and crafted to pull the proverbial wool over the eyes of the unwashed masses. Yes, the vast majority of us were fed up with the now defunct Christie administration. It has now been four months since Dr. Hubert Minnis and crew came into office. The majority of the public schools in New Providence are in a terrible state of disrepair, especially Claridge Road Primary School, just around the corner from Marathon Estates, which the good minister of education lives in or used to live in. A disgrace, minister, of no small proportions.
Lloyd, in another incarnation, also headed admirably YEAST, a then social intervention program sponsored by the Catholic Board of Education. He did wonders with that program, but is he able and capable of duplicating his success with the national educational grid and physical structure? I do not think so, and Minnis will rue the day, I submit, when he placed individuals, who appear to be so full of it in Cabinet posts to which they might not be in possession of the appropriate temperament, discernment and vision which might be suited for a particular office.
When Parliament convenes, I'd like to see a complete list of all of the educational contracts awarded since Lloyd has been appointed minister of education with a complete fiscal breakdown and line itemized. Many of the same contractors who were granted nebulous contracts by Fitzgerald and his crew have been awarded contracts by Lloyd and his people.
Our educational system is beyond the pale. Unless and until technocrats actually manage the entire system, except for setting public policies, only God will be able to bring rationalization and lucidity to this unwieldly beast called education. Jeffrey, with all due respect, like myself is a serious student and teacher of the metaphysical. We are, indeed, divine illuminators but there are some of our craft who, alas, have gone rouge.
The dumbing down of The Bahamas started way back in the days of the late Paul Lawrence Adderley, God rest his soul, when he promulgated "Adderley's Law" in the 1980s. Most of our male students drop out of regular school and graduate, often with PhDs from the Department of Corrections. The females, in the main, go on to at least UB or BTVI.
Our students and population, across the board, never recovered. Jeffrey, God bless him too, has his work cut out for him. I will next deal with the Office of The Prime Minister.
To God then, in all things, be the glory.

- Ortland H. Bodie Jr.

Dear Editor,

Please accept my congratulations for Tuesday's editorial, "Leaving the 'Age of Superstition' behind". Hopefully the editorial will persuade some Bahamians that hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes and floods are natural phenomena and not divine events.

- Leonard Archer

Dear Editor,

Do insurers ever warn of 20 percent to 25 percent insurance rate decreases if hurricanes do not hit? In fact, do insurance rates ever decrease?

- JB