Dear Editor:

You know this when the media can run a story saying there are 700 teen pregnancies each year in The Bahamas, most of whom are minors between 13 and 15 years of age, and not a single word from anywhere is heard thereafter - not from the church, the police, the government, nowhere - even though if the girls are minors that means they are almost all victims of statutory rape; an offence that now carries a maximum life sentence under the legislative amendments made by the previous administration.

So we have hundreds of documented cases of statutory rape in this country each year and no one says a word, but the newspapers from the front page to back can be filled everyday with story after story about the numbers business, and churches can hold prayer vigils and campaigns asking the public for money to help them encourage the nation to say no to numbers.

But hundreds of rapes of minor girls each year in our country? Who really cares, right?

Our nation is sick.

 - Sharon Turner

Dear Editor,

The Government says it will licence web shop gambling (for only a few numbers men at the outset) if Bahamians vote ‘yes’ in its upcoming opinion poll on December 3. The Constitution of The Bahamas meantime says Bahamians, by an Act of Parliament, can be discriminated against in the right to gamble in all forms, not just in the casinos – all forms. So, if the Government wants to legalise gambling in web shops by Bahamians, a constitutional referendum should be held by the Government to remove that discriminatory clause, so that there is no longer an equal rights issue at all in The Bahamas regarding Bahamians being able to gamble in any form, or own and/or operate a gaming house of any kind. Otherwise any law tabled to specifically legalise gambling by Bahamians in web shops will not be addressing that pivotal issue of a Bahamian’s equal gaming rights. A constitutional referendum, not an opinion poll, should be held.

And, since the Government says it is seeking to determine the true will of the people with respect to gambling in the Bahamas, questions via a constitutional referendum should also be put to the Bahamian people on whether they want that discriminatory clause enshrined in the Constitution, and on whether they want the Parliament to outlaw gambling for Bahamians. Instead - based on the Prime Minister’s Communication to Parliament - the Government is simply asking us what we think (our opinion) about just a few of the numerous numbers men in our country being able to get their licence right now – hardly the kind of question a progressive Government should be asking its people in a 21^st century Bahamas.

For the benefit of all readers, a constitutional referendum is a poll that is held to make a change to our Constitution. This is done first by the Government presenting its proposed Constitutional amendments to the Parliament where a 2/3-majority ‘yes’ vote must be obtained. Those proposed amendments then go to the Senate, which also must return at 2/3-majority ‘yes’ vote. Then the proposed amendments go to the people by way of a vote that is held under the same procedures as a general election, and once the majority of registered voters vote yes, the proposed changes to the Constitution can be carried out.

Dear Editor,

Prime Minister Perry Christie Tuesday finally confirmed what I and other informed, discerning Bahamians already knew from day one – there is no actual UK consultant report on gambling in The Bahamas – the report Prime Minister Christie told Parliament and the country would be a basis for his Government deciding what question(s) would ultimately appear on the December 3 referendum ballot on web shop gambling in The Bahamas.

Speaking to the media, Mr. Christie said he is not releasing to the public the report he previously said he would receive by early October at the latest, because it actually does not exist at all: Prime Minister Christie’s quote: “What report? The Government has a continuing relationship with gaming consultants on all matters to do with that. It is never a specific report, it’s continuing matters where discussions are made, etcetera, so it’s no physical report. There are three or four pages of advice that you get from time to time. I don’t understand the question of whether there is a report to be released, there is no report.”

The Prime Minister then told the media he will not release to the public even the “three to four pages” of advice he said he would get “from time to time” on the gambling issue. Back on September 20, the Prime Minister is quoted by the media as saying he would announce the date for the gambling referendum after reviewing the report issued to his Government by UK-based consultants he said were engaged to provide advice on gaming in The Bahamas.

His mind-blowing admission that there is no actual report, is the latest evidence of the monumental charade apparently being perpetrated on The Bahamian people by the Government regarding the December 3 numbers poll. As I said in my commentary of November 1, the Bahamian people have been mislead on this issue of legalising the numbers business, and I encourage the Bahamian people not to allow the Government to play games with the game of chance (gambling) in our country, to turn out in large numbers and to vote ‘no’ on December 3.