The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Pearl McMillian’s announcement to the press that The Bahamas has experienced a decline in COVID-19 infections at a 50 percent rate between October 10 and November 5 is good news for a beleaguered nation.

After reading what McMillan said in The Nassau Guardian, I visited a propaganda site to see if the amateur journalist had reported this groundbreaking news. Not surprisingly, it was not there. To date, there have been 154 deaths related to COVID-19. Based on the faulty logic of the amateur journalist, those 154 deaths are 154 reasons to dump Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis in 2022.

I personally know of at least three Bahamians who have succumbed to this health pestilence.

According to McMillan, there are 25 deaths under investigation. This means the death toll could rise anywhere from one to 25 additional COVID-19 deaths.

The amateur journalist is a supporter of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP).

Just so you would know, I don’t plan to vote in the upcoming election cycle.

I now consider myself to be an independent swing voter.

Having said that, COVID-19 has been politically indiscriminate in who it kills.

PLPs and Free National Movement (FNM) supporters have died. Reading the amateur journalist, you would think that Minnis introduced COVID-19 to The Bahamas.

Another thing worth mentioning is the glee in which the amateur journalist reported the news of Scotiabank closing its branches in Abaco, Andros, Long Island and Exuma.

Reading the article revealed a shocking lack of human empathy for the impacted employees of Scotiabank, who very well could find themselves out of work.

What I believe is happening with institutions such as Scotiabank is that COVID-19 has caused many of them to go automation.

I believe it was in the Washington Post where I read tens of thousands of jobs being lost to automation since the advent of COVID-19. The issue with Scotiabank isn’t unique to The Bahamas.

Reading the amateur journalist, you sense that he or she wants to fault Minnis for the Scotiabank situation. At least that was what I gathered from the article.

Bahamians have a myopic perspective on COVID-19. We act as if we’re the only ones dealing with the restrictive measures put in place to stop the spread of the virus.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently announced stricter measures to fight COVID-19 in England.

I blame the professional media for contributing to the misleading narrative that what is happening in The Bahamas is unique to us. The amateur journalist is also a major contributor to this false narrative.

Not surprisingly, the amateur journalist has yet to report on Baha Mar’s planned reopening on December 17, in addition to its decision to bring back over 1,500 Bahamians.

I stand to be corrected, but I also haven’t seen any articles about the phased reopening of Atlantis by year end on the propaganda site.

Had the two mega resorts announced they would be delaying their reopening well into 2021, I am certain that the amateur journalist would’ve reported this news with glee.

Things are bad in The Bahamas. The announcements by Baha Mar and Atlantis are huge. Together, those two resorts have a combined staff total of 12,000, I think. Putting these Bahamians back to work would ease a massive load off the central government.

It would also give these Bahamians back their dignity. The amateur journalist seems oblivious to the fact that PLPs also work at Baha Mar and Atlantis. They have been impacted as much as FNMs. But judging from what the amateur journalist has written about the many job losses since March, you get the feeling that he is gleeful about Bahamians suffering.

His mindset seems to be that the more Bahamians are suffering, the better the chances are that his party will defeat the incumbent government in 2022. The Atlantis and Baha Mar announcements were, in all likelihood, devastating news to this individual. Things simply must not improve between now and election day. What I find disturbing about this brand of political tribalism is that the bigwigs in his party are multimillionaires who he is rooting for, even to the point of seeing more Bahamians catch hell. His political leaders cannot commiserate with the average Bahamian.

If this amateur journalist is a Bahamian, which I think he is, he is obviously putting his political party before The Bahamas. He cares little about the Bahamian people.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport, Grand Bahama,

November 9, 2020.