The Tribune

EDITOR. The Tribune.

Wikipedia defines a Freudian slip thus:

“A Freudian slip, also called parapraxis, is an error in speech, memory, or physical action that is interpreted as occurring due to the interference of an unconscious (“dynamically repressed”) subdued wish, conflict, or train of thought guided by the ego and the rules of correct behaviour.”

It would appear that such a slip was made by our Prime Minister at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Hilton Pointe development. Clearly the remark was made, but subsequently withdrawn, for the benefit of his good friend Jimmy Mosko.

When I was a child, we used to have colouring books, with a little academia embedded, where one was required to “connect the dots” to reveal the picture to be painted.

And so I took the Prime Minister’s remark in similar vein, to see why he might have made such a slip. Were there any dots that might connect the PM with Jimmy Mosko. Like The Tribune files, the Internet can be unforgiving in its unforgetting. One of the first references to the Real Estate and Development firm of Cross and Mosko is found in a Nassau Guardian announcement, in December of 2011 of the formation of the new firm. Not a lot else happens, until a Tribune article announces on October 29, 2014, that Cross and Mosko was the very fortunate Realty Firm that “helped” China Construction America (CCA) acquire the Hilton property and get the necessary Governmental approvals, for the purchase and the new development.

So, we are very proud of our Bahamian contemporaries, and their very good fortune in this matter, but still wonder how CCA found them, among the huge list of realty and development companies offering similar services in The Bahamas. So we look for another dot in the Bahamas Real Estate Website, and lo and behold, we find one Steffan P. Christie, listed as a Salesperson of Cross and Mosko Realty etc. Well, my, my, my, could there be any connection between Steffan P. Christie and Perry Gladstone Christie? Say it ain’t true! But, another dot is found in the Bahamas Weekly of July 3, 2012, reporting on the death Trixie Hanna which says “Mrs. Paula Hanna-Miller and First Lady of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Mrs. Bernadette Christie; four grandchildren, Shane Russell, Steffan, Alexandria, and Adam Christie; and four great grandchildren” ... OMG – So Steffan P. Christie is in fact one of the sons of Perry and Bernadette Christie, and is a Salesperson with Cross and Mosko Realty and Development Company. Could he have possibly helped CCA acquire the property? This picture is starting to look like a PEKING DUCK. Could the Prime Minister not have known that these foreign investors were doing business with his son’s employers, or perhaps even partners? Clearly not I think, because the Freudian Slip tends to suggest he did know, and in fact, knew a lot more than a Prime Minister might otherwise be expected to know.

It is also most interesting that the very circumspect CCA, almost overnight, was able to see a possible conflict of interest, if PwC was appointed liquidators of Baha Mar, but somehow were able to work with Cross & Mosko and the Government of the Bahamas, but never saw any impropriety with the Prime Minister’s son being employed by the realty and development company that possibly helping them purchase the property, and obtain necessary permissions to build the Hilton Pointe.

DOTTY DUCK

Nassau,

August 15, 2015.