The Tribune

By LARRY SMITH

Doing business with a middle-class, 40-ish shop clerk last week I was questioned about the referendum.

Actually, I am fed up with the referendum, so I pointed out that no date has been set for a vote.

She persisted anyway: “But you ready right?”

I said I was registered in the last general election.

Upon further prodding I suggested the exercise would be a huge waste of time because women like herself would vote against the proposals anyway - as they did 15 years ago - totally against their own self-interest.

Nodding sagely, she admitted there was one amendment she would vote against. But I declined to pursue the matter.

As I said, I am sick and tired of listening to the byzantine nonsense spewed about the proposals to make men and women equal under the Constitution.

It is a starkly simple issue of equal rights, yet Bahamians have tied themselves into knots based on blatant homophobia on the one hand, and anachronistic views of the role of women on the other.

The referendum under this administration was supposed to have taken place in 2014. It was postponed to allow for “public education”, but no such education took place - and Bahamians are just as confused as they ever were.

Actually, that’s probably not a true characterisation. Bahamians are not confused - they have a very simple view that women should be subordinate to men and do not deserve the same rights.

This perverse belief stems from the unreasoning influence of fundamentalism - which is compounded by the poor quality of public education. And the fundamentalists will be bolstered by those who will vote on the basis of political considerations, as happened in 2002.

The only point here is that women and men should be equal under the law - just like whites and blacks. And if Bahamian women don’t stand up for themselves, they will soon be forced to wear burkas and be unable to drive.

And that is the last time I will open my mouth on this ridiculous non-issue.

Dr Donald Gerace and the ‘Discovery’ of the Bahamas

Don Gerace died this month at his home in Florida. He was 83.

Few readers may have known Gerace, but he left his mark as founder of the celebrated research centre on San Salvador, and a longtime organiser of scholarships for Bahamian students.

I first met him in the 1970s, while visiting San Salvador as a writer for the Bahamas News Bureau. We were never close, but we shared a singular professional experience in the 1980s.

It is remarkable that the San Sal field station survived the past 40 years, housing 100 students in dorms and 80 professors in motel-like rooms. But there is no doubt where the credit lies, which is why the facility is known today as the Gerace Research Centre (GRC).

A geologist, Don Gerace was originally from Buffalo, New York. He joined the staff of the College Centre of the Finger Lakes in 1969, running student field trips to the Florida Keys until he saw a newspaper ad selling the defunct US naval base on San Salvador for $1.

He immediately set off for the Bahamas with the idea of converting the base into a college field station. And despite the legendary difficulties of dealing with the Bahamian government, Gerace succeeded in his mission.

The first group of 40 American students flew in on Bahamas Airways in December 1971. And since then more than 36,000 have passed through the centre. In the epilogue to his 2011 autobiography (Life Quest), Gerace proudly described the field station as his “child”.

As Dr Ethan Freid (of the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve) once wrote, “the stories of the GRC and Don Gerace are so completely intertwined, they are one and the same ... the field station has evolved into one of the foremost locations in the Bahamas for teaching and research year-round.”

It hosted the first scientific conferences in the Bahamas - from geology to wildlife to archaeology, to environmental studies. But its most important claim to fame was finding physical evidence of the historic first European encounter with the Lucayan Indians who originally lived here.

In 1983 an archaeological team working under the auspices of the field station unearthed a trove of artefacts at a Lucayan settlement site just behind Long Bay beach, where the island’s iconic Columbus memorial had been erected in 1956.

Here is an excerpt from my Reuters report (which was picked up by the New York Times): “Less than 20 centimetres underground, researchers found four green and yellow glass beads, two brass buckles, some metal spikes and a piece of Spanish crockery. Experts have verified that the beads were made in Spain between the late 15th and early 16th centuries.”

I quoted Don Gerace as follows: “There are still some controversial alternatives about the landfall site, but this discovery is certainly a milestone in proving that San Salvador was the place. We know San Salvador was a contact site. And we know that by 1520 the islands were depopulated. If these artefacts are not connected with Columbus’ visit, the other possibility is that the Indians moved back to San Salvador after 1520 and made later contact. I find this unlikely,” Gerace told me.

On Monday, at the opening ceremony in the Atlantis Resort for the third Bahamas Natural History Conference, VIP guests (including the Prime Minister) shared a moment of silence in Don’s memory. It was especially poignant because he was very much in evidence at the last conference just two years ago.

Today, except for the addition of the Club Med resort, San Salvador has changed little since my visits during the 1980s. And the historic Lucayan settlement site behind Long Bay beach - which briefly drew so much world attention - is overgrown and largely forgotten.

NIB plays the compliance game

In February,the National Insurance Board’s chief compliance officer declared a “zero tolerance” approach to those who did not pay their contributions.

“That’s what we’re going after this year,” Stephen Thompson told The Tribune. “We’re asking them to come in so they can bring these agreements up to date.”

He was referring to arrangements that allow an employer to agree on outstanding amounts and pay the 40 per cent employee’s portion up front. The balance can then be paid over two years, so long as current contributions are met.

Thompson said compliance by Bahamian employers was as low as 30 per cent when it came to paying due NIB contributions in full, and on time. And this represents millions of dollars in outstanding payments. These delinquent companies are either not making deductions from their revenue and employees’ salaries or, in some cases, are taking the money from worker pay cheques but pocketing it themselves, Thompson said.

He warned that defaulters would be “hard pressed” to get a letter of good standing from NIB in order to qualify for a business licence, obtain a work permit, import goods or win government contracts.

Say what? My little business has had to extract a letter of good standing every year from NIB, or we would not get a business licence, and would be prevented from importing goods or bidding on government contracts.

So what was Thompson going on about? I asked Rowena Bethel, NIB director, to explain. Here is a summary of her response:

1 Historically, about 65 per cent of businesses do not pay their contributions within the time stipulated by law, which is 15 days from the end of the month in which they become due.

2 The percentage of employers and self-employed persons with arrears of six months or more is about 59 per cent; about 46 per cent have arrears of 12 months or more, and the percentage with arrears of three years or more is 24 per cent.

3 Not all businesses operate with a business licence or a current business licence. But that is a matter of concern for the Business Licence authorities.

4 The Letter of Good Standing from NIB is a requirement for the renewal of a business licence and, now, also for the VAT Tax Compliance Certificate.

5 NIB works with businesses that have contribution arrears, so long as they are co-operating in a meaningful way to reduce the arrears while continuing to pay their current contributions.

6 At least half of the arrears cases are self-employed persons, who are unable to claim a benefit where they have not made the requisite contributions. More modern techniques for compliance are being implemented to reduce these numbers.

7 Delinquent businesses run the full spectrum of employer type and cover the entire Bahamas, although non-compliance is more chronic amongst smaller businesses.

8 The employer population base is 24,000 and the self-employed population base is about 20,000.

9 Strategies are being revised to tackle the persistent arrears problem. One component is to carry out a registration campaign to identify those businesses which are still operational. A new IT platform will help to bring more control by enabling proactive actions by NIB.

10 In 2015 there were1,803 cases in varying stages of processing for legal action, but tackling delinquency early on, before a matter requires legal action, is the more effective approach.

11 The primary objective is to secure the contributions needed to fund benefit obligations. But employees once NIB is certain that, at the relevant time, they were gainfully employed claims will be paid and employers will be pursued.

12 An actuarial review is required by law every five years. The last published review was in 2011. A review was undertaken by the International Labour Organisation last year at the government’s request, but the resulting report has not been released.

What do you think? Send comments to lsmith@tribunemedia.net or visit www.bahamapundit.com