The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

From my very earliest memory, two words that should evoke human compassion and Christian kindness are Widows and Orphans. By their very definition they suggest vulnerability and to some extent, weakness against the misfortunes and outrages of simply living, much less living alone.

And so I was a little surprised a couple of weeks ago when one of Violet Esfakis (circa 93+) children posted on social media that “someone” was breaking down one of the walls of her mother’s property. With a backhoe no less and against all protestations of the widow’s son Andrew. The Police had been called and asked to intervene, but it seems such things as willful destruction of another’s property are not in the bailiwick of the RBPF.

Next stop, I understand, was a report and appeal to the Department of Physical Planning in the Ministry of Works. Physical Planning did get involved and saw what was going on and determined that no Permit had been issued to anyone to excavate that site. They further issued a Stop Order to the operators of the equipment and told them that a permit to excavate was required. It seems that it is an offence against the Conservation and Preservation of Physical Landscape Act to excavate without a permit. Notwithstanding that, the excavation continued unabated on Monday of this week as if no order had been given to stop.

It seems that a high profile local Corporate Services provider owns this property and doesn’t give a tinkers damn about the Widow, who they are dispossessing. For people trying to offer financial services to Bahamians, one would have thought that bullying tactics such as this would be frowned on. Much less falling foul of the law.

MONKEEDOO

Nassau,

August 19, 2019