YOU have a weapon against COVID-19.
Yes, you. And it’s a weapon you should not think twice about using.
The weapon is nothing more than your telephone – and you can use it to call the police when rule breakers hold social gatherings that they shouldn’t.
You might think this is snitching. It isn’t. It’s reporting a public health threat.
Think of it this way – if you looked out and saw a neighbour’s house burning, would it be snitching to call for a fire engine? Of course not. It would be a responsible action that could save lives.
Calling for help is the right thing to do when lives are at risk – and that’s exactly what gatherings are doing at this time, in the middle of a pandemic that has seen another 151 confirmed cases just yesterday in The Bahamas.
Ask yourself this as you sit inside your home this long lockdown weekend – do you still want to be sitting there at Christmas with this virus unchecked? As COVID-19 sweeps unchecked across The Bahamas, killing our people and our economy? Of course not.
Rules breakers should not be able to rely on neighbours not wanting to cause trouble while they go ahead and hold events that could become super spreaders, infecting more people and continuing this wave that we are struggling under.
The decent thing to do is to think of the partygoers’ parents, their grandparents, their relatives with vulnerable conditions – and call the hotline to bring the police, and to send people packing, hopefully before they have a chance to become infected.
The hotline number is 702-9967. Remember it. Call it.
And if the police don’t come running? Well, call us. We’ll be sure to cover it and hold police to account if they don’t deal with it.
How many more nights do you want to be cooped up at home? How many more weekends do you want to have to go through lockdowns? How many more weeks do you want to be worrying over whether you have a job because the economy can’t get moving again because of this virus?
Those holding parties and gatherings right now are being selfish. They don’t care about you. So why should you cover for them?
You have a weapon. Use it.
Was Keva murdered?
We must be very careful that a case of a woman whose body was found washed ashore on a beach in Eleuthera last month is not dismissed too readily.
Family members are concerned following the death of Keva Cash, aged just 25, that it is being too quickly ruled to be nothing more than a drowning.
Police have reportedly told the family they have found no signs of foul play – and an official from the Central Detective Unit told The Tribune that the death has been ruled a drowning.
But wait a minute, that’s the job of a coroner to declare.
The family has legitimate concerns – Keva’s teeth were all knocked out and she had a broken jaw. She had bruising on her skin.
More than that, one man is alleged to have told Keva’s mother as she was looking for her that she was “by the beach, I put her to sleep for good”.
There are serious questions here and they should not be dismissed so readily.
We would hate to think too that because Keva was a woman with the mind of a child that her case was not being taken seriously because of that. Those with disabilities already suffer enough setbacks in our society in life, that should not be the case in death too.
So we call on the coroner to conduct a proper investigation. If there is no foul play, let that stand up to the light of a proper probe – and let us not be haunted by the prospect of a potential murder being swept under the carpet by investigators who just can’t be bothered to find out the truth.
Comments
birdiestrachan 4 years, 1 month ago
Some folks live in cramped quarters. They do not have air condition circulation in the air. Lockdowns are hard for poor people. they suffer most from lockdowns. It is hard for them but they must suffer through it obey the law.
It makes no sense to lose one's life or to be locked away because of fines they can not pay.
God does hear the cries of the poor cry out to him.
watcher 4 years, 1 month ago
@ B / S - But you're not offering any possible solution to the crisis as far as I.can tell. If the 'poor' should not be locked away, it appears that you would rather they be allowed free to roam the island at will? By your logic, we would all (yourself included) then end up either poor or dead.
Voltaire 4 years, 1 month ago
The poor suffer most from lockdowns. Fair enough. You know what would make them suffer even more? Suffocating to death in an overcrowded hospital among strangers, no friends or family allowed.
whogothere 4 years, 1 month ago
The first half of this editorial is most depressing thing I have ever ready...We are actually living in a propagandist state. The fact that the tribune is advocating to convince people that it's good to inform on them is shocking...No it's not the same as a house on fire. We talking poorly understood virus and a policy that empirically and scientifically has been shown to be infective and possibly worse the disease it's self. We are talking about the Bahamas being supposed democratic free state that has been converted into a Medical Dictorship without the slightest bit of evidence, or more pointedly has merely used the excuse that many other countries around the world have made the same mistake - robbing person's freedoms for months, crushing their jobs, crushing their businesses and a destroying their moral. I wish the tribune would actually do some investigating and actually challenge the status quo. They actually have a wealth of info in house -Tally up obituaries see if there has actually been an uptick in deaths for example...ask difficult questions of the medical professionals that seem blind to the increase crime, and diagnostic slowdowns or that it is now well established that there is no good reason to keep children out of schools as around the globe and in USA - guess what surprise - schools are not a source of super spreading the virus.
benniesun 4 years, 1 month ago
@whogothere - very well put. We are only at the beginning of the worldwide lockdown. Our owners are getting us used to being confined until they are ready to implement the next phase. Until then restrictions of our movements will increase along with other deprivations. Under those conditions snitching helps their agenda.
tribanon 4 years, 1 month ago
Couldn't agree more, but The Tribune's owners are a well entrenched part of the white(r) Bahamian ruling elite who love to do nothing more than pit one Bahamian against another as they go about living the good life on the backs of us oppressed and downtrodden Bahamians who are darker than they are.
happyfly 4 years, 1 month ago
I agree with a lot of what you have to say Trib but it makes me sick when you have to bring up the race card. Xenophobia has excluded white ideas and influence from this countries politics for 50 years. Minnis hates white people and doesn't listen to anyone (white or black) so how is it white people's fault that Papa Lock Dock wants us (human beings) to report our neighbor for breaking curfew ??
ThisIsOurs 4 years, 1 month ago
it's snitching. Its exactly like the SS program employed by the Nazis convincing people that everybody else was the enemy. The funny thing is noone ever believe their "little" "white" infraction is so bad. I know someone who was constantly talking about these hard head bahamians, but when they needed their hair wash in May they pick up the hairdresser, rules wasnt so important anymore.
We are focusing too much energy on y'all can't listen propogabda. Its the responsible people who are spreading the virus. We had the nurses getting sick, policemen getting sick, DEFENCE force getting sick. Go put some rules on those people. Then go develop a program to test everyone cause we could be finding 100 and 200 positives per day for the next year and a half. and don't for a minute bekieve that once you open the border you've won the battle, EVERY country has demonstrated, EVERY ONE, opening the border releases a fresh spike on infections. Go deal with that.
Listen. And don't be surprised. We've been here before
benniesun 4 years, 1 month ago
@ThisIsOurs - The test isn't what you are being told it is. The more testing done the greater amount of positives found. The testing is the tool being used to justify us being under house arrest and soon starvation. Doctors in other countries are risking their careers to give us the truth; don't fall for the misinformation.
ThisIsOurs 4 years, 1 month ago
"The more testing done the greater amount of positives found."
True! that's my point. We could be here for another year. Systematically test everyone, quarantine the infected properly then get a real plan together for 3000 possibly infected people per week offboarding at the cruise terminal downtown
benniesun 4 years, 1 month ago
TPTB say that the tested dna fragment is from covid. Doctors are saying that the dna fragment is found in many other organisms and is normal to the human body. That is why the test measures the quantity of the fragments after replication since we all have it. Which is why you can test positive today, then negative tomorrow, then positive the day after ad infinitum. Covid is only a cover for something else.
tribanon 4 years, 1 month ago
Snitching of the kind The Tribune is talking about is what dictators demand of their oppressed citizenry in a police state. The Tribune's owners should be ashamed of themselves endorsing Minnis's creation of a police state that will see the wrongful (unconstitutional) imprisonment of the poorest and most downtrodden in our society. Just how evil can The Tribune's owners be as they sip their late afternoon pool side cocktails in their gated communities like Lyford Cay??!!
avidreader 4 years, 1 month ago
Sounds awfully like the dreaded CDR (Comite para la defensa de la revolucion) organization in Cuba under the Castro brothers. Most people feel somewhat uncertain about informing on others. Of course, we are told that in this instance it is a good and laudable act. Problem is, no government will step down and admit that the spread of the virus cannot be stopped. Only time will see it fade away gradually. What condition our poor country will be in by that time is best left to the imagination. What a nightmare!
John 4 years, 1 month ago
Wat lives matter
bahamianson 4 years, 1 month ago
What the hell are.you people.talking about? All of Europe is shut down to some.degree. they are marching against lockdowns in England, Germany has imposed restrictions, italy , Spain and France are closing Bars at a certain hour , more restrictions, New York has closed private and public schools in certain areas, Toronto has closed Gyms, indoor dining , cinemas for the next 28 days! Where the hell do you get racism and this great white conspiracy? You people need to stop looking at everything through white and black. I guess the white man wants to keep the white man down in Canada, Spain, France, England and Germany. Good grief!!
benniesun 4 years, 1 month ago
@bahamianson - read what one of their best minds had to say. Bertrand Comparet was a brilliant lawyer turned preacher. https://comparet.christogenea.org/sermo… This is the heart of the matter.
hrysippus 4 years, 1 month ago
Great editorial. Thank you Editor for having the integrity to publish what will obviously be an unpopular t truth. I will happily report any selfish covid 19 spreading groups who consider themselves too special to obey the law.
ThisIsOurs 4 years, 1 month ago
start with the parliamentarians who refused to quarantine until after more of their numbers fell ill. Can't be more selfish than that
tribanon 4 years, 1 month ago
Bingo !
ohdrap4 4 years, 1 month ago
The tribune should not need to recruit any snitches. The Condominium Cathys so common in the Bahamas need some entertainment. So long as the report is anonymous.
But I will only call crime stoppers if I get a reward. They pay more than the food vouchers.
Chucky 4 years, 1 month ago
Hitler said it wasn’t snitching, it was saving the race.
John 4 years, 1 month ago
Can’t we all just get along? I saw this woman go in the food store this pre- lockdown weekend. And she took gloves out her bag and put them on. Then a ppe goen and put that on. Then protective covers for her shoes and put those on. And she went about her business through the store shopping drawing little or no attention. Then there were other shoppers, they had their masks on but they still can like inches within beach other. Going into the deli section, the three staff there were in a hurdle sharing a joke among themselves. Then going to the cashier, the packing boys were crowded in a group waiting for their turn to pack groceries. Is it really just lack of education and information and proper guidance that is helping to spread this virus? Not because you work together means you are safe with each other and don’t need to practice social distancing and safety measures. Then they go home to their respective houses and families and again get in close proximity
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