The Tribune

By Inigo Zenicazelaya

I’ve got to keep it short and sweet this week. The NFL season is upon us, and in all honesty I can’t let these ‘jokey’ leaders of ours distract me from beloved Dallas Cowboys this week.

I much prefer to watch rookie long shots give their all to make an NFL team, than hear more retread political rhetoric and witness more bogus dancing from our local politicos.

Now you all know me well enough to know it’s not like I turned a complete blind eye to the political landscape. I browsed it a few times, and long enough to come up with a few ‘Thumbs Up’ and ‘Thumbs Down’ for a this week.

THUMBS UP To Mr Alfred Sears, for exhibiting the intestinal fortitude and moxy to throw his hat in the ring for the Leadership of the PLP. The deck does seem stacked against him, taking on the political Tyrannosaurus Rex in incumbent PM Perry Christie. However the chips may fall, though, Mr Sears is to be commended for his efforts and good intentions for our nation moving forward, also giving credence to the cry for youthful leadership moving forward, not the stagnant, antiquated approach by today’s septuagenarian leaders!

THUMBS DOWN Leader of the opposition Dr Hubert Minnis, for double talking.

One can’t claim to promote unity within the party and cohesiveness moving forward, by breaking the culture of cronyism on the heels of removing Darron Cash from the FNM council because he openly didn’t support you.

Where’s the democracy, Doc?

I see the hypocrisy, but that’s politics I guess.

THUMBS UP To Andre Rollins for sticking to his promise and giving it a go as an Independent candidate. Now Rollins winning a seat in the next election is as likely as the sun rising in the west but it doesn’t matter. Bahamians are just happy to see one politician keep his word, even if the other five million he spews are utter nonsense.

THUMBS DOWN To Brave Davis and Obie Wilchcombe for letting Alfred Sears beat them to the ‘leadership’ punch. Yes, we know Sears will likely lose. But guess what? Christie will likely lose, too. And when the smoke clears, voters will remember he put out his manifesto and had the guts to at least try.

What will they remember of the ministers who were too scared to make a move?

THUMBS UP To third parties. Yes, I know the DNA, UDP. PPM and all the rest are fighting an uphill battle against two (broken) behemoths in the upcoming election, but when voters look to the left and see incompetence, and look to the right and see chaos, sometimes it’s good to have a third choice. Basically, they’re the strawberry in Neapolitan ice cream. And somedays you just want strawberry.

THUMBS DOWN To DNA leader Bran McCartney for mocking the ‘sham’ that is the upcoming PLP leadership contest. I’m not saying it’s not a sham, I’m just saying McCartney has a lot of nerve criticising when we have yet to see a leadership contest in the DNA in 6 years. So, pot meet kettle.

THUMBS UP To the Supreme Court for ruling that our constitutional right to privacy cannot be tossed aside by Parliamentary privilege. I have two words for the two Cabinet Ministers who caused this mess and remain intransigent even after the ruling: Take dat!

THUMBS UP AND DOWN To Speaker of the House Dr. Kendal Major for reevaluating his decision to allow Minister Jerome Fitzgerald to wax idiotic in parliament while reading private emails. Though Dr. Major blasted the decision of the Supreme Court, he did seem to recognise why citizens would be concerned about the incident, and alluded to putting in place stricter measures before allowing MPs ‘talk people business.’

Now that we are officially past the dog days of summer, and our legislators return to work, we can only hope that they too give a break from the hot air, and actually focus on moving the country forward. Time will tell.

• Inigo ‘Naughty’ Zenicazelaya is the resident stand-up comic at Jokers Wild Comedy Club at the Atlantis, Paradise Island, resort and presents ‘Mischief and Mayhem in da AM’ from 6am to 10am, Monday to Friday, and ‘The Press Box’ sports talk show on Sunday from 10am to 1pm on KISS FM 96.1. He also writes a sports column in The Tribune on Tuesday. Comments and questions to naughty@tribunemedia.net